Morebus steps in to fill void left by withdrawal of R4 and R5 bus routes from 8th April

Tuesday, March 06 2018

Morebus is to step in and operate the R4 and R5 bus routes, linking Kinson residents with Castlepoint and Royal Bournemouth Hospital.

The company is saving the services - which Yellow Buses recently announced they would withdraw from 8 April - after listening to the views of local people.

“The withdrawal of these two routes by another local operator has concerned those who live and work in the town, and we want to do something about that,” said Morebus managing director, Andrew Wickham.

“Our team has worked swiftly to ensure our buses will cover the existing routes in their entirety - securing uninterrupted services for passengers here. This means vital links to Castlepoint and the hospital for the communities of West Howe, East Howe and Kinson will be saved.

“We know that many schoolchildren also depend on the routes, and we’ll be making sure they can still get to school by bus.

“Our aim is to minimise the impact on bus users and we welcome the opportunity to prove our commitment to providing comprehensive bus operations across the area.

“The R4 and R5 will operate to their current timetables until late May, when we will incorporate the R4 and R5 routes into our own services as part of our main summer timetable revisions.”

From 27 May 2018, R4 and R5 will become part of Morebus’ service 14, which currently runs between Poole and Kinson via West Howe. The 14 will be extended from Kinson to the Hospital via East Howe and Ensbury Park. This service will preserve all existing links except those from the Columbia Road and Anstey Road areas. New links will be created between East Howe, Ensbury Park and Poole.